Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and other natural disasters, as well as other life-threatening emergencies, underscore the need for a robust communications infrastructure for use by local, state, and federal emergency response teams. Police departments, fire departments, “911” call centers and other law enforcement personnel increasingly rely upon mobile wireless communication devices to coordinate first response and “on scene” rescue efforts with citizens, dispatchers, and fellow public safety organizations.
The proliferation of cellular telephones, broadband communication devices, and rapidly advancing standards and protocols for their use places a premium on the limited bandwidth allocated for public safety applications. This requires system designers and regulators to utilize available bandwidth more efficiently, without compromising the life-saving missions of these emergency response agencies.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.